HOOVER, Alabama — Charlie’s Taphouse & Cafe is a sports bar and grill located in the Plaza at Riverchase shopping center on Montgomery Highway. This is the same shopping center where Hobby Lobby is located.

In addition to televised sports and 32 beers on tap, Charlie’s also offers a complete cafe menu featuring everything from burgers and wings to quesadillas and nachos..

The atmosphere here is straight-up sports bar — multiple TVs tuned to various sporting events, rock music in the background, and a seating choice of wooden booths or high-top or regular-height tables.

On a recent Wednesday evening our friendly waitress advised us that they are in the process of transitioning to a new menu and all of the shrimp items were presently unavailable.

We shared a couple of appetizers. The fried dill pickles and sliced jalapenos ($4.99) were excellent — a large basketful of well-seasoned battered and fried dill pickle slices intermingled with small slices of jalapenos that were not too hot. These were served with a side cup of ranch dressing for dipping.

Our other selection, fried mozzarella sticks ($6.99) were also very tasty. The six sticks were battered and fried and served with a cup of cool, flavorful marinara sauce. Some other appetizer choices include chips and queso, onion rings and chili cheese fries.

Wings include traditional as well as boneless varieties, prepared mild, medium, hot, or extra hot, and served in various counts from six to 24. There are also party platters available consisting of 50 or 100 count wings.

One diner enjoyed an order of 12 medium-intensity boneless breast Buffalo chicken tenders. These white meat chunks were indeed tender and tasty, but were closer to mild in terms of spiciness. Celery sticks and blue cheese dressing accompanied. Ranch dressing is also available.

To go with her chicken, she enjoyed a house salad ($5.99) — mixed lettuces, shredded cheese, diced cucumber, tomatoes, crumbled bacon and croutons, dressed in a good house vinaigrette.

My appetite would not support the house specialty, Charlie’s “heart stopper” cheeseburger ($10.49), which is a large beef patty, cheese and bacon, stacked between two grilled cheese sandwiches! Instead I opted for a regular-sized cheeseburger ($7.49) — noteworthy for its tender, high-quality ground beef, and dressed with lettuce, tomato, mayo, ketchup and onion slices.

Burgers may be topped with a choice of cheese varieties — I opted for cheddar — as well as other toppings such as sauteed mushrooms, sauteed onions or bacon. They can also be prepared blackened-style upon request.

Burgers come with a choice of fries or cole slaw. Or substitute a side salad or onion rings for an additional $1.50. The onion rings were large, thinly sliced, and battered and fried a nice golden brown.